MANUSCRIPT: missing.

PUBLICATION: L (1894) 404-405; L (1931) 393-394.

The Emersons had left Amherst in February 1883. Without the autograph, it is impossible to place this letter accurately. Clearly Emerson has sent ED reading matter, perhaps clippings. There were two periods in the last years when she was too sick to read or write. On 7 June 1884 she became acutely ill, confined to her bed for several weeks. From late November 1885 until her death in May 1886 she mustered strength only intermittently. If Emerson's package was clippings about Helen Jackson's death (August 1885), then this letter was written early in 1886. (See letter no. 1018.)